Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 14, 2016 is: kapellmeister • \kuh-PELL-mye-ster\ • noun : (often capitalized Kapellmeister) the director of a choir or orchestra Examples: The Kapellmeister brought his hands up slowly to signal to the musicians a shift to a slower tempo. "Schwader joined them onstage for an account of the apparently dagger-toting Johann Sebastian Bach's tussle with a bassoonist he allegedly insulted. Using a humorous German accent during dialogue, it was an amusing anecdotal introduction to the portly bewigged Kapellmeister we recognize from portraits and intricate counterpoint…." — Libby Hanssen, The Kansas City Star, 13 November 2016 Did you know? As you may have guessed, Kapellmeister originated as a German word—and in fact, even in English it is often (though not always) used for the director of a German choir. Kapelle once meant "choir" in German, and Meister is the German word for "master." The Latin magister is an ancestor of both Meister and master, as well as of our maestro, meaning "an eminent composer or conductor." Kapelle comes from cappella, the Medieval Latin word for "chapel." As it happens, we also borrowed Kapelle into English, first to refer to the choir or orchestra of a royal or papal chapel, and later to describe any orchestra. Kapellmeister is used somewhat more frequently than Kapelle in current English, though neither word is especially common. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 13, 2016 is: hors de combat • \or-duh-kohng-BAH\ • adverb or adjective : out of combat : disabled Examples: The quarterback suffered a concussion in last week's game that put him hors de combat until cleared to play by the team's doctor. "'Tis the season of software upgrades and updates. Yesterday the Windows machine took it into its head to update itself without so much as asking permission. The PC was hors de combat for an hour or so." — Terry Lane, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Oct. 2016 Did you know? We picked up hors de combat directly from French back in the mid-18th century. Benjamin Franklin put the term to use in a 1776 letter, observing that an "arrow sticking in any part of a man puts him hors du [sic] combat till it is extracted." But you don't have to use the word as literally as Franklin did. Combat can refer to any fight or contest, not just fighting in a war. A politician who's out of the running in a political race could be declared "hors de combat," for example. But the adjective (or adverb) need not refer only to humans or animals: if you own a car, chances are your vehicle has been hors de combat at least once. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 12, 2016 is: Methuselah • \muh-THOO-zuh-luh\ • noun 1 : an ancestor of Noah held to have lived 969 years 2 : an oversize wine bottle holding about six liters Examples: The winery has started bottling their champagne in Methuselahs. "People still write of the Krug 1928 as the best bottle of wine made in the last century. A bottle of it sold in 2009 for $21,200, and that wasn't a 6-liter Methuselah. It was a standard 750 milliliters of amazing." — Julie Glenn, The News-Press (Fort Myers, FL), 21 Jan. 2015 Did you know? What do Jeroboam, Methuselah, Salmanazar, Balthazar, and Nebuchadnezzar have in common? Larger-than-life biblical figures all, yes (four kings and a venerable patriarch), but they're all also names of oversized wine bottles. A Jeroboam is usually the equivalent of about four 750-milliliter bottles (about 3 liters). One Methuselah holds about eight standard bottles' worth, a Salmanazar 12, a Balthazar 16, and a Nebuchadnezzar a whopping 20. (Each of these terms is also sometimes styled lowercase.) No one knows who decided to use those names for bottles, but we do know that by the 1800s Jeroboam was being used for large goblets or "enormous bottles of fabulous content." It wasn't until sometime early in the 20th century that Methuselah and all the other names were chosen for specific bottle sizes. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 11, 2016 is: fillip • \FIL-up\ • verb 1 a : to strike by holding the nail of a finger against the ball of the thumb and then suddenly releasing it from that position b : to make a filliping motion with 2 : to project quickly by or as if by a filliping motion : snap 3 : to urge on : stimulate Examples: As their parents finished up dinner, the two boys entertained themselves at the table by filliping crumbs into an overturned cup. "He leaves behind a business … which senior sources say will deliver record pre-tax profits in the region of [euros] 30 million this year, filliped by strong fundraising and private client business and surging stock markets." — Róisín Burke, The Sunday Business Post (Ireland), 7 Dec. 2014 Did you know? Like flip and flick, fillip is considered a phonetic imitation of the sharp release of a curled-up finger aimed to strike something. Language history suggests that people were filliping in the 15th-century, well before they were flipping and flicking. Specifically, fillip describes a strike or gesture made by the sudden straightening of a finger curled up against the thumb—a motion commonly referred to as a flick. It didn't take long before the sensational stinging smartness of filliping was extended to figurative use. "I mark this in our old Mogul's wine; it's quite as deadening to some as filliping to others," observes Herman Melville's Dutch sailor of wine's "stimulating" effect in Moby Dick. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 10, 2016 is: objurgation • \ahb-jer-GAY-shun\ • noun : a harsh rebuke Examples: "I had early formed my opinion of him; and, in spite of Miss Murray's objurgations, was fully convinced that he was a man of strong sense, firm faith, and ardent piety, but thoughtful and stern." — Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey, 1847 "It always amazes me to sit at a sporting event and hear members of the audience shout objurgations at a pro player who has just dropped a ball or made some other error." — R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., The New York Sun, 25 Apr. 2003 Did you know? Objurgation traces to the Latin objurgare ("to scold or blame"), which was formed from ob- ("against") and jurgare ("to quarrel" or, literally, "to take to law"—in other words, "to bring a lawsuit"). Jur- in Latin means "law," and there are several English words related to objurgation that have legal implications, including perjury, abjure, jurisprudence, and even injury. But despite its etymological connection to the law, the word objurgation carries no legal weight. It refers to nothing more than an unusually harsh or severe scolding. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 9, 2016 is: daedal • \DEE-dul\ • adjective 1 a : skillful, artistic b : intricate 2 : adorned with many things Examples: The filmmaker makes daedal use of lighting effects and camera angles to create a noirish atmosphere. "Applying makeup on trains … is not easy. That innumerable Japanese women choose to do so while commuting should, therefore, be seen as a testament to their steady hands as well as that country's steady trains. Indeed, undertaking such a daedal exercise on the Indian railway system—or any other public transport—would be foolhardy unless the intention is to emerge looking like Heath Ledger as the Joker." — The Economic Times, 29 Oct. 2016 Did you know? You might know Daedalus as the mythological prisoner who fashioned wings of feathers and wax to escape from the island of Crete with his son Icarus. But it was as architect and sculptor, one said to have designed a labyrinth for King Minos on Crete, that he earned his name. Daedalus (from Greek daidalos) is Latin for "skillfully wrought." The same "skillful" Latin adjective gave English the adjectives daedal (in use since the 16th century) and Daedalian (or Daedalean), a synonym of daedal. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 8, 2016 is: qui vive • \kee-VEEV\ • noun : alert, lookout — used in the phrase on the qui vive Examples: "All right. Lieutenant Howard, go see how the artillery wagons are managing, and on the way tell Major Mason that I need him again. Stay on the qui vive; you may find evidence of liquor." — William T. Vollmann, The Dying Grass: A Novel of the Nez Perce War, 2015 "Pasadena Heritage staged its Colorado Street Bridge Party July 16, and Police Chief Phillip Sanchez was clearly on the qui vive at the entrance to the bridge." — Patt Diroll, The Pasadena Star News, 24 July 2016 Did you know? When a sentinel guarding a French castle in days of yore cried, "Qui vive?," your life depended upon your answer. The question the sentinel was asking was "Long live who?" The correct answer was usually something like "Long live the king!" Visitors not answering the question this way were regarded as suspect, and so to be "on the qui vive" meant to be on the alert or lookout, and qui vive came to mean "alert" or "lookout" soon afterward. Nowadays, the term is most often used in the phrase "on the qui vive," meaning "on the lookout." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 7, 2016 is: bamboozle • \bam-BOO-zul\ • verb 1 : to deceive by underhanded methods : dupe, hoodwink 2 : to confuse, frustrate, or throw off thoroughly or completely Examples: "Some consumers are so bamboozled by slick sales talk that they pay extra for amazingly bad deals. Just one example, a $49.99, four-year service plan on a DVD player that sells for $39.99." — Mike McClintock, The Chicago Tribune, 13 Feb. 2009 "We agree with those who filed the suits challenging the wording of the ballot question. We believe it is deceitful—and deliberately so, designed to bamboozle voters into thinking they are voting on a minor issue that simply codifies existing law instead of adding five years to a judge's term." — The Philadelphia Daily News, 10 Oct. 2016 Did you know? In 1710, Irish author Jonathan Swift wrote an article on "the continual Corruption of our English Tongue" in which he complained of "the Choice of certain Words invented by some pretty Fellows." Among the inventions Swift disliked were bamboozle, bubble (a dupe), put (a fool), and sham. (Perhaps he objected to the use of sham as a verb; he himself had used the adjective meaning "false" a couple of years previously.) What all these words appear to have in common is a connection to the underworld as jargon of criminals. Other than that, the origin of bamboozle remains a mystery, but the over-300-year-old word has clearly defied Swift's assertion that "All new affected Modes of Speech . . . are the first perishing Parts in any Language." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 6, 2016 is: salient • \SAIL-yunt\ • adjective 1 : moving by leaps or springs : jumping 2 : jetting upward 3 : standing out conspicuously : prominent; especially : of notable significance Examples: The speech was filled with so much twisted rhetoric that it was hard to identify any salient points. "Among the projects: … an $18 million makeover of Freedom Hall, substantial new meeting and storage space, a new ballroom and a new $70 million exhibit hall…. Those were the salient recommendations of a new master plan for the Kentucky Exposition Center…." — Sheldon Shafer, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), 28 Oct. 2016 Did you know? Salient first popped up in English in the 16th century as a term of heraldry meaning "rampant but leaning forward as if leaping." By the mid-17th century, it had leaped into more general use in the senses of "moving by leaps or springs" or "spouting forth." Those senses aren't too much of a jump from the word's parent, the Latin verb salire, which means "to leap." Salire also occurs in the etymologies of some other English words, including somersault and sally, as well as Salientia, the name for an order of amphibians that includes frogs, toads, and other notable jumpers. Today, salient is usually used to describe things that are physically prominent (such as a salient nose) or that stand out figuratively (such as the salient features of a painting or the salient points in an argument). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 5, 2016 is: ziggurat • \ZIG-uh-rat\ • noun : an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower consisting of a lofty pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top; also : a structure or object of similar form Examples: "The building itself is certainly distinctive: The bronze-meshed ziggurat moves upwards toward the sky and into the light." — Lisa Benton-Short, GWToday (gwtoday.gwu.edu, George Washington University), 10 Oct. 2016 "The opulence remains in Barbara de Limburg's expansive sets, but the dramatic point is the contrast of the family's poverty with the consumerist rapacity suggested by the Witch's lair—not the usual gumdrop-bedecked gingerbread house but a towering ziggurat of brightly packaged junk food…." — Gavin Borchart, The Seattle Weekly, 19 Oct. 2016 Did you know? French professor of archaeology François Lenormant spent a great deal of time poring over ancient Assyrian texts. In those cuneiform inscriptions, he recognized a new language, now known as Akkadian, which proved valuable to the understanding of ancient Mesopotamian civilization. Through his studies, he became familiar with the Akkadian word for the towering Mesopotamian temples: ziqqurratu. In 1877 he came out with Chaldean Magic, a scholarly exposition on the mythology of the Chaldeans, an ancient people who lived in what is now Iraq. In his work, which was immediately translated into English, he introduced the word ziggurat to the modern world in his description of the ziggurat of the Iraqi palace of Khorsabad. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 4, 2016 is: muckrake • \MUCK-rayk\ • verb : to search out and publicly expose real or apparent misconduct of a prominent individual or business Examples: Arn is an aggressive reporter, never afraid to ask difficult questions, hound evasive sources, or muckrake when things appear suspect. "From his groundbreaking days of editing the iconic liberal magazines Ramparts and Scanlan's Monthly in the 1960s and '70s to his reliably irreverent columns for newspapers …, Mr. [Warren] Hinckle delighted in tweaking anyone in charge of anything and muckraking for what he fiercely saw as the common good." — Kevin Fagan, The San Francisco Chronicle, 26 Aug. 2016 Did you know? The noun muckrake (literally, a rake for muck, i.e., manure) rose out of the dung heap and into the realm of literary metaphor in 1684. That's when John Bunyan used it in Pilgrim's Progress to represent man's preoccupation with earthly things. "The Man with the Muckrake," he wrote, "could look no way but downward." In a 1906 speech, President Teddy Roosevelt recalled Bunyan's words while railing against journalists he thought focused too much on exposing corruption in business and government. Roosevelt called them "the men with the muck-rakes" and implied that they needed to learn "when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward." Investigative reporters weren't insulted; they adopted the term muckraker as a badge of honor. And soon English speakers were using the verb muckrake for the practice of exposing misconduct. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 3, 2016 is: vulpine • \VUL-pine\ • adjective 1 : of, relating to, or resembling a fox 2 : foxy, crafty Examples: "There is something Gatsby-esque about the whole story. [Bernie] Madoff is a clear proxy for Meyer Wolfsheim, the vulpine, self-satisfied criminal seducer." — Daniel Gross, Newsweek, 12 Jan. 2009 "Flashing a vulpine grin, he's not a typical hunk—but like Casanova, a maestro of stylish manners and clever entrapment, an incorrigible cad proud of his powers of improvisational manipulation." — Misha Berson, The Seattle Times, 30 Oct. 2016 Did you know? In Walden (1854), Henry David Thoreau described foxes crying out "raggedly and demoniacally" as they hunted through the winter forest, and he wrote, "Sometimes one came near to my window, attracted by my light, barked a vulpine curse at me, and then retreated." Thoreau's was far from the first use of vulpine; English writers have been applying that adjective to the foxlike or crafty since at least the 15th century, and the Latin parent of our term, vulpinus (from the noun vulpes, meaning "fox"), was around long before that. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 2, 2016 is: wane • \WAYN\ • verb 1 : to decrease in size, extent, or degree 2 : to fall gradually from power, prosperity, or influence Examples: "Last year, the station offered fans the chance to buy the CD online for the first time and also sold it in Target stores as usual. But unlike previous years, the limited-run compilation didn't sell out immediately, suggesting its popularity may be waning." — Ross Raihala, The Pioneer Press (TwinCities.com), 14 Oct. 2016 "And as public and political interest in space exploration waxed and waned over the following decades, the funding for the space program did too." — Dianna Wray, The Houston Press, 26 Oct. 2016 Did you know? "Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour / Draws on apace four happy days bring in / Another moon: But oh, methinks how slow / This old moon wanes!" So Theseus describes his eagerness for his wedding night in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. As illustrated by Theseus' words, wane is a word often called upon to describe the seeming decrease in size of the moon in the later phases of the lunar cycle. The traditional opposite of wane is wax, a once common but now infrequently used synonym of grow. Wane and wax have been partnered in reference to the moon since the Middle Ages. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 1, 2016 is: thaumaturgy • \THAW-muh-ter-jee\ • noun : the performance of miracles; specifically : magic Examples: "The place is still a favourite pilgrimage, but there seems to be some doubt as to which Saint John has chosen it as the scene of his posthumous thaumaturgy; for, according to a local guide-book, it is equally frequented on the feasts of the Baptist and of the Evangelist." — Edith Wharton, Italian Backgrounds, 1905 "Indeed, so keen was the horror at the hysteria that had taken hold in Salem that the mere mention of the place was sufficient to cool any passions that looked in danger of spiraling into outmoded and dangerous thaumaturgy." — Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 16 Dec. 2011 Did you know? The magic of thaumaturgy is miraculous. The word, from a Greek word meaning "miracle working," is applicable to any performance of miracles, especially by incantation. It can also be used of things that merely seem miraculous and unexplainable, like the thaumaturgy of a motion picture's illusions (aka "movie magic"), or the thaumaturgy at work in an athletic team's "miracle" comeback. In addition to thaumaturgy, we also have thaumaturge and thaumaturgist, both of which mean "a performer of miracles" or "a magician," and the adjective thaumaturgic, meaning "performing miracles" or "of, relating to, or dependent on thaumaturgy." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 30, 2016 is: soporific • \sah-puh-RIFF-ik\ • adjective 1 a : causing or tending to cause sleep b : tending to dull awareness or alertness 2 : of, relating to, or marked by sleepiness or lethargy Examples: The soporific effects of the stuffy classroom and the lecturer's droning voice left more than one student fighting to stay awake. "The prose sparkles at every turn, but that's not to say it's without flaws. Some entire chapters … struck me as wholly soporific." — Andrew Ervin, The Washington Post, 13 Sept. 2016 Did you know? "It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific.' I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit." In The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter, the children of Benjamin Bunny were very nearly done in by Mr. McGregor because they ate soporific lettuces that put them into a deep sleep. Their near fate can help you recall the history of soporific. The term traces to the Latin noun sopor, which means "deep sleep." (That root is related to somnus, the Latin word for sleep and the name of the Roman god of sleep.) French speakers used sopor as the basis of soporifique, which was probably the model for the English soporific. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 29, 2016 is: cabbage • \KAB-ij\ • verb : steal, filch Examples: "When these ruffians were in a relatively mild mood they were content to chase us off the diamond, but when their glands were flowing freely they also cabbaged our bats, balls and gloves." — H. L. Mencken, Happy Days, 1940 "More and more people are trying to get their 'news' free from online sources, unreliable as some of these fly-by-night wanna-bes are. In truth, the information is usually cabbaged from the website (or the print edition) of the local paper." — Kim Poindexter, The Tahlequah (Oklahoma) Daily Press, 24 Aug. 2015 Did you know? Does the "filching" meaning of cabbage bring to mind an image of thieves sneaking out of farm fields with armloads of pilfered produce? If so, you're in for a surprise. Today's featured word has nothing to do with the leafy vegetable. It originally referred to the practice among tailors of pocketing part of the cloth given to them to make garments. The verb was cut from the same cloth as an older British noun cabbage, which meant "pieces of cloth left in cutting out garments and traditionally kept by tailors as perquisites." Both of those ethically questionable cabbages probably derived from cabas, the Middle French word for "cheating or theft." The cabbage found in coleslaw, on the other hand, comes from Middle English caboche, which meant "head." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 28, 2016 is: vicissitude • \vuh-SISS-uh-tood\ • noun 1 : the quality or state of being changeable : mutability 2 a : a favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance : a fluctuation of state or condition b : a difficulty or hardship usually beyond one's control Examples: "The vicissitudes of life strike us all. But when life gets difficult for the poor, economically or emotionally, or most often both at once, it can pitch them into complete chaos." — The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 22 Aug. 2016 "A good coach on tour is at once a friend and a taskmaster, a psychologist and an emotional buffer against the vicissitudes of competing at the highest level of the game." — Geoff Macdonald, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2016 Did you know? "Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better," wrote British theologian Richard Hooker in the 16th century. That observation may shed some light on vicissitude, a word that can refer simply to the fact of change, or to an instance of it, but that often refers specifically to hardship or difficulty brought about by change. To survive "the vicissitudes of life" is thus to survive life's ups and downs, with special emphasis on the downs. Vicissitude is a descendant of the Latin noun vicis, meaning "change" or "alternation," and it has been a part of the English language since the 16th century. In contemporary usage, it most often occurs in the plural. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 27, 2016 is: dynasty • \DYE-nuh-stee\ • noun 1 : a succession of rulers of the same line of descent 2 : a powerful group or family that maintains its position for a considerable time Examples: "A scion of the Patterson-Medill publishing dynasty (her great-grandfather and her father founded the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News, respectively), [Alicia] Patterson launched Newsday in 1940, on Long Island, quickly building it from a small suburban daily to an influential national paper." — Jocelyn Hannah, The New Yorker, 12 Sept. 2016 "Mark down 2016 as the year the Republican Party under a new standard-bearer divorced itself from the Bush dynasty." — Dan Janison, Newsday (New York), 10 Oct. 2016 Did you know? Dynast and dynasty both descend from the Greek verb dynasthai, which means "to be able" or "to have power." Dynasty came to prominence in English first; it has been part of our language since at least the 14th century. Dynast took its place in the linguistic family line in the early 1600s, and it has been used to describe sovereigns and other rulers ever since. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 26, 2016 is: wistful • \WIST-ful\ • adjective 1 : full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy; also : inspiring such yearning 2 : musingly sad : pensive Examples: As the car pulled away, Lea cast one last wistful glance at the house where she'd spent so many happy years. "The book left me in wistful reverie, envisioning that shimmering pond and a rugged, robust old gentleman in his 'herringbone suit' and jaunty wide-brimmed straw hat, sitting on a three-legged wooden chair in front of an easel, his brushes flying." — Elfrieda Abbe, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 11 Sept. 2016 Did you know? Are you yearning to know the history of wistful? If so, we can ease your melancholy a little by telling you that wistful comes from a combination of wishful and wistly, a now obsolete word meaning "intently." We can't say with certainty where wistly came from, but it may have sprung from whistly, an old term meaning "silently" or "quietly." How did the supposed transition from a word meaning "quietly" to one meaning "intently" come about? That's something to muse about, but the answer isn't known. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 25, 2016 is: genteel • \jen-TEEL\ • adjective 1 a : of or relating to the gentry or upper class b : elegant or graceful in manner, appearance, or shape c : free from vulgarity or rudeness : polite 2 : marked by false delicacy, prudery, or affectation Examples: "The Hamptons, once so genteel, with their sepulchral light and estates hidden behind neatly groomed hedges, have managed to become a nexus of social life, … where openings and charity galas and club nights fill the summer calendar." — Marisa Meltzer, Town & Country, 1 Aug. 2016 "At this preternaturally elegant new French restaurant …, the waitstaff keeps things lively with cheeky repartee. On arrival one late-summer evening, a man, having located his party, said to the host, 'I'm with them,' and was met with a genteel retort: 'As you should be.'" — Shauna Lyon, The New Yorker, 26 Sept. 2016 Did you know? In Roman times, the Latin noun gens was used to refer to a clan, a group of related people. Its plural gentes was used to designate all the people of the world, particularly non-Romans. An adjective form, gentilis, applied to both senses. Over time, the adjective was borrowed and passed through several languages. It came into Old French as gentil, a word that then meant "high-born" (in modern French it means "nice"); that term was carried over into Anglo-French, where English speakers found and borrowed it in the early 17th century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 24, 2016 is: riddle • \RID-ul\ • noun 1 : a mystifying, misleading, or puzzling question posed as a problem to be solved or guessed : conundrum, enigma 2 : something or someone difficult to understand Examples: Despite Nick's outgoing nature, he doesn't share many details about his background and personal life, so he remains something of a riddle. "Stewart's books are for children who like mysteries and riddles, and there are many scenes where readers hold their breath in suspense." — Clara Martin, The Clarion-Ledger, 16 Oct. 2016 Did you know? It is not unusual for words to acquire and lose meanings over time, and riddle is no exception. Old English speakers—who had a variety of spellings for riddle, including hrædels, redelse, and rædelse—used the word as we do today to describe a question posed as a problem to be solved or guessed, but they also used it in the now obsolete senses of "counsel," "consideration," "debate," "conjecture," "interpretation," "imagination," and "example." (Not surprisingly, the Old English source of riddle is a cousin to Old English rǣdan, meaning "to interpret" or "to advise.") By the beginning of the 15th century riddle acquired the sense of "a puzzling or perplexing thing," and in the 17th century it also came to refer to "a puzzling or enigmatic person or being." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 23, 2016 is: impute • \im-PYOOT\ • verb 1 : to lay the responsibility or blame for often falsely or unjustly 2 : to credit to a person or a cause Examples: "Now, one comment in reaction to my essay said that by talking about the city's problems and not its promise, I was in the business of tearing down Syracuse. At LeMoyne, I was taught that the most dangerous thing to do in argument was to impute motives to your opponent." — Carl Schramm, Forbes.com, 4 Mar. 2013 "The CAS panel concluded that Sharapova's case 'was not about an athlete who cheated.' Instead, the panel found, 'It was only about the degree of fault that can be imputed to a player for her failure to make sure that the substance contained in a product she had been legally taking over a long period … remained in compliance." — Tom Perrotta, The Wall Street Journal, 4 Oct. 2016 Did you know? Impute is a somewhat formal word that is used to suggest that someone or something has done or is guilty of something. It is similar in meaning to such words as ascribe and attribute, though it is more likely to suggest an association with something that brings discredit. When we impute something, we typically impute it to someone or something. You may also encounter the related noun imputation, which appears in such contexts as "I deny all your imputations of blame." Another sense of impute means "to calculate as a value or cost (as for taxation)," as in "impute a benefit from the use of the car." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 22, 2016 is: protocol • \PROH-tuh-kawl\ • noun 1 : an original draft or record of a document or transaction 2 : a preliminary memorandum of diplomatic negotiation 3 : a code prescribing strict adherence to correct etiquette and precedence 4 : a set of conventions for formatting data in an electronic communications system 5 : a detailed plan of a scientific or medical experiment, treatment, or procedure Examples: "A protocol that arose from Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, research has led to U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of a biological drug for the treatment of a certain form of lung cancer." — USA Today, 1 Oct. 2016 "Throughout Obama's first term, critics described him as naïve, particularly in the area of foreign relations—so ignorant of practical realities that he didn't even understand the symbolic protocols of a state visit. In 2009, when he bowed to Emperor Akihito, on a trip to Tokyo, he was referred to on the far right as 'treasonous.'" — Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 3 Oct. 2016 Did you know? In Late Greek, the word prōtokollon referred to the first sheet of a papyrus roll bearing the date of its manufacture. In some instances, it consisted of a flyleaf that was glued to the outside of a manuscript's case and provided a description of its contents. Coming from the Greek prefix prōto- ("first") and the noun kolla ("glue"), prōtokollon gave us our word protocol. In its earliest uses in the 15th century, the word referred to a prologue or preface and also to a record of a document or transaction. In the late 19th century, it began to be used in reference to the etiquette observed by the Head of State of France in ceremonies and relations with other dignitaries. This sense has since extended in meaning to cover any code of proper conduct. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 21, 2016 is: Kafkaesque • \kahf-kuh-ESK\ • adjective : of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially : having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality Examples: "Dealing with the Kafkaesque health system, for example, would be enough to make anyone 'agitated, aggressive, irritable or temperamental.'" — Logan Jenkins, The San Diego Union Tribune, 27 July 2016 "I think the ultimate nightmare is for you to get into a Kafkaesque situation where you know you haven't done anything wrong . . . but for some reason you are not listened to and you are not being believed." — Lee Child, quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer, 19 Oct. 2016 Did you know? Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a Czech-born German-language writer whose surreal fiction vividly expressed the anxiety, alienation, and powerlessness of the individual in the 20th century. Kafka's work is characterized by nightmarish settings in which characters are crushed by nonsensical, blind authority. Thus, the word Kafkaesque is often applied to bizarre and impersonal administrative situations where the individual feels powerless to understand or control what is happening. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 20, 2016 is: nictitate • \NIK-tuh-tayt\ • verb 1 : to close and open quickly : to shut one eye briefly : wink 2 : to close and open the eyelids Examples: "Dermaq's third eyelids nictitated over his corneas as though to wash away the image, and momentarily he looked away, then back at his superior." — Charles L. Harness, Firebird, 1981 "The hump shifted, raised a hairless head of chitinous scales. Almond eyes of burning gold nictitated to life. A broad chest of angular plates swelled with breath." — Ian C. Esslemont, Night of Knives, 2004 Did you know? Nictitate didn't just happen in the blink of an eye; it developed over time as an alteration of the older verb nictate, which also means "to wink." Both verbs trace to the Latin word for winking, nictare. The addition of the extra syllable was apparently influenced by Latin verbs ending in -itare, such as palpitare and agitare (which gave us palpitate and agitate, respectively). Today, nictitate has a special use in the animal world. Since the early 18th century, scientists have used nictitating membrane to describe the so-called "third eyelid": the thin, usually transparent membrane in the eyes of birds, fishes, and other vertebrates that helps keep the eyeball moist and clean. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 19, 2016 is: meshuggener • \muh-SHUG-uh-ner\ • noun : a foolish or crazy person Examples: "What kind of meshuggener would apply the small plates concept to Jewish comfort food, which is all about abundance and appetite?" — Tracey Macleod, The Independent (United Kingdom), 16 Dec. 2011 "Whoever decided to remake The Producers in 2005 was a meshuggener. There will certainly not be a remake of The Frisco Kid, a film from 1979—[Gene] Wilder plays a rabbi who rides into trouble in the Wild West. Don't go there!" — David Robson, The Jewish Chronicle Online, 1 Sept. 2016 Did you know? From bagel and chutzpah to shtick and yenta, Yiddish has given English many a colorful term over the years. Meshuggener is another example of what happens when English interprets that rich Jewish language. Meshuggener comes from the Yiddish meshugener, which in turn derives from meshuge, an adjective that is synonymous with crazy or foolish. English speakers have used the adjective form, meshuga or meshugge, to mean "foolish" since the late 1800s; we've dubbed foolish folk meshuggeners since at least 1900. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 18, 2016 is: lambent • \LAM-bunt\ • adjective 1 : playing lightly on or over a surface : flickering 2 : softly bright or radiant 3 : marked by lightness or brilliance especially of expression Examples: "It's an early May morning and the air is cool and still and filled with lambent light." — Christopher Norment, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 4 May 2015 "There's nothing like the swell of a powerful pipe organ in the right room. You can feel the lowest pedal notes in your stomach, or the lambent whisper of the tiniest pipes, with their delicate, shimmering sound." — T. R. Goldman, The Washington Post, 31 July 2016 Did you know? Fire is frequently associated with lapping or licking imagery: flames are often described as "tongues" that "lick." Lambent, which first appeared in English in the 17th century, is a part of this tradition, coming from lambens, the present participle of the Latin verb lambere, meaning "to lick." In its earliest uses, lambent meant "playing lightly over a surface," "gliding over," or "flickering." These uses were usually applied to flames or light, and by way of that association, the term eventually came to describe things with a radiant or brilliant glow, as Alexander Pope used it in his 1717 poem "Eloisa to Abelard": "Those smiling eyes, attemp'ring ev'ry ray, Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 17, 2016 is: obfuscate • \AHB-fuh-skayt\ • verb 1 a : darken b : to make obscure 2 : confuse 3 : to be evasive, unclear, or confusing Examples: "Time and again he has shifted, shaded or obfuscated his policy positions—piling on new ideas, which sometimes didn't fit with the old." — David Fahrenthold and Katie Zezima, The Washington Post, 23 Apr. 2016 "It was the trademark of San Francisco psychedelia to never put the year on a concert poster, and to obfuscate important details." — Sam Whiting, The San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Oct. 2016 Did you know? To obfuscate something means to make it so that it isn't clear or transparent, much like dirty water makes it hard to see to the bottom of a pond. The verb shares its ob- root (meaning "over, completely") with obscure, another word that can refer to the act of concealing something or making it more difficult to see or understand. The rest of obfuscate comes from Latin fuscus, which means "dark brown" and is distantly related to our word dusk. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 16, 2016 is: jejune • \jih-JOON\ • adjective 1 : lacking nutritive value 2 : devoid of significance or interest : dull 3 : juvenile, puerile Examples: "I have not, however, been a fan of the Broadway singer … in the past, and her jejune performances here—complete with some tap dancing that belied the lyrics of 'I Got Rhythm'—did not convert me." — Anne Midgette, The Washington Post, 22 Sept. 2015 "He complains about wasting his talent 'writing songs for frogs' (he is a composer of jejune melodies for a children's television show called Mr. Bungee's Lily Pad)." — Nancy Chen, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 21 Oct. 2016 Did you know? Starved for excitement? You won't get it from something jejune. That term derives from the Latin jejunus, which means "empty of food," "meager," or "hungry." Back in the 1600s, English speakers used jejune in senses very similar to those of its Latin parent, lamenting "jejune appetites" and "jejune morsels." Something that is meager rarely satisfies, and before long jejune was being used not only for meager meals or hunger, but for things wanting in intellectual or emotional substance. The word most likely gained its "childish" sense when people confused it with the look-alike French word jeune, which means "young." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 15, 2016 is: quid pro quo • \kwid-proh-KWOH\ • noun : something given or received for something else; also : a deal arranging such an exchange Examples: "PA officials say they have no evidence [the employees] engaged in a quid pro quo, in which they green-light the PA's purchase of wasteful insurance policies in return for the gifts or considerations, but rather suspect they turned a blind eye to their responsibilities." — Philip Messing, The New York Post, 26 July 2013 "On the face of it, Canada's agreement to enter into talks on an extradition treaty looks a lot like a quid pro quo for the welcome release of Kevin Garratt, the Canadian missionary imprisoned on trumped-up espionage charges." — The Toronto Star, 23 Sept. 2016 Did you know? In the early 16th century, a quid pro quo was something obtained from an apothecary. That's because when quid pro quo (New Latin for "something for something") was first used in English, it referred to the process of substituting one medicine for another—whether intentionally (and sometimes fraudulently) or accidentally. The meaning of the phrase was quickly extended, however, and within several decades it was being used for more general equivalent exchanges. These days, it often occurs in legal contexts. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 14, 2016 is: hoke • \HOHK\ • verb : to give a contrived, falsely impressive, or hokey quality to — usually used with up Examples: "Its okay that everybody looks great, though certain scenes seem hoked up. A black cat crossing the path of a motorcade about to explode feels more like Hollywood moviemaking than truth telling…." — D.J. Palladino, The Santa Barbara Independent, 10 Jan. 2013 "'Concussion' has the sober, patient earnestness of a lawyer preparing a major case—it's a dramatization of true events and occasionally hoked up in the finest Hollywood tradition, but it wants to stir you into being convinced instead of the other way around." — Ty Burr, The Boston Globe, 25 Dec. 2015 Did you know? Hoke is a back-formation of hokum, which was probably created as a blend of hocus-pocus and bunkum. Hokum is a word for the theatrical devices used to evoke a desired audience response. The verb hoke appeared in the early 20th century and was originally used (as it still can be today) when actors performed in an exaggerated or overly sentimental way. Today, it is often used adjectivally in the form hoked-up, as in "hoked-up dialogue." The related word hokey was coined soon after hoke to describe things that are corny or phony. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 13, 2016 is: sabot • \sa-BOH\ • noun 1 a : a wooden shoe worn in various European countries b : a strap across the instep in a shoe especially of the sandal type; also : a shoe having a sabot strap 2 : a thrust-transmitting carrier that positions a missile in a gun barrel or launching tube and that prevents the escape of gas ahead of the missile 3 : a dealing box designed to hold several decks of playing cards Examples: "The spin imparted by rifling lets slugs separate cleanly from the sabot, makes them fly true, and allows them to expand." — Phil Bourjaily, Field & Stream, November 2014 "The man is a venerable but unprepossessing figure; he rests his hands on a cane, he has sabots on his feet, wears cinched gaiters over his trousers and has two medals on his greatcoat." — Michael Prodger, The New Statesman, 17 June 2015 Did you know? The term sabot may have first been introduced into English in a 1607 translation from French: "wooden shoes," readers were informed, are "properly called sabots." The gun-related sense appeared in the mid-1800s with the invention of a wooden gizmo that kept gun shells from shifting in the gun barrel. Apparently, someone thought the device resembled a wooden shoe and named it sabot (with later generations of this device carrying on the name). Another kind of French sabot—a metal "shoe" used to secure rails to railway ties—is said to be the origin of the word sabotage, from workers destroying the sabots during a French railway strike in the early 1900s. The word sabot is probably related to savate, a Middle French word for an old shoe. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 12, 2016 is: facetious • \fuh-SEE-shuss\ • adjective 1 : joking or jesting often inappropriately : waggish 2 : meant to be humorous or funny : not serious Examples: "My proposal to tax estates heavily is neither entirely serious nor wholly facetious." — Martha Viehmann, The Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, 17 Aug. 2016 "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a garbage man. I'm not being facetious or silly…. As a four-year-old, my room window faced the street, and I remember being mesmerized by these wild guys waking me up twice a week. They were raucous and loud, they yelled and threw things around with reckless abandon, they dangerously climbed on and hung off a large moving vehicle…." — Andy Nulman, quoted in The Globe and Mail, 11 Sept. 2016 Did you know? Facetious—which puzzle fans know is one of the few English words containing the vowels a, e, i, o, u in order—came to English from the Middle French word facetieux, which traces to the Latin word facetia, meaning "jest." Facetia seems to have made only one other lasting contribution to the English language: facetiae, meaning "witty or humorous writings or sayings." Facetiae, which comes from the plural of facetia and is pronounced \fuh-SEE-shee-ee\ or \fuh-SEE-shee-eye\, is a far less common word than facetious, but it does show up occasionally. For example, American essayist Louis Menand used it in his 2002 book American Studies to describe the early days of The New Yorker. "The New Yorker," he wrote, "started as a hectic book of gossip, cartoons, and facetiae." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 11, 2016 is: ukase • \yoo-KAYSS\ • noun 1 : a proclamation by a Russian emperor or government having the force of law 2 a : a proclamation having the force of law b : order, command Examples: "On December 31, 1810, the Emperor issued a ukase lifting all restrictions on exports from Russia and on imports coming by sea, while at the same time imposing a heavy tariff on goods arriving overland, most of which came from France." — James Traub, John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit, 2016 "The Department of Education has issued a ukase … on the use of exclamation marks by seven-year-olds.… Education ministers have concluded that seven-year-olds are … unhealthily addicted to exclamation points …, and have decreed that in this summer's grammar tests for primary school pupils, sentences concluding with an exclamation point may be marked correct only if they begin with How or What." — Jane Shilling, The Daily Telegraph (London), 7 Mar. 2016 Did you know? English speakers adopted ukase more or less simultaneously from French (ukase) and Russian (ukaz) in the early 18th century. The word can be traced further back to the Russian verb ukazat', meaning "to show" or "to order," and its ultimate source is an ancient root that led to similar words in Latin, Sanskrit, and Old Church Slavic. A Russian ukase was a command from the highest levels of government that could not be disobeyed. But by the early 19th century, English speakers were also using ukase generally for any command that seemed to come from a higher authority, particularly one that was final or arbitrary. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 10, 2016 is: elicit • \ih-LISS-it\ • verb 1 : to draw forth or bring out (something latent or potential) 2 : to call forth or draw out (as information or a response) Examples: The announcement of the final amount raised by the charity walk elicited many cheers from the crowd. "But the big question is whether fragments of pottery, fraying textiles and decaying manuscripts can elicit excitement these days when people are glued to technology." — Ruth Eglash, The Washington Post, 26 Oct. 2016 Did you know? Elicit derives from the past participle of the Latin verb elicere, formed by combining the prefix e- (meaning "away") with the verb lacere, meaning "to entice by charm or attraction." It is not related to its near-homophone, the adjective illicit—that word, meaning "unlawful," traces back to another Latin verb, licēre, meaning "to be permitted." Nor is elicit related to the verb solicit, even though it sounds like it should be. Solicit derives from Latin sollicitare ("to disturb"), formed by combining the adjective sollus, meaning "whole," with the past participle of the verb ciēre, meaning "to move." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 9, 2016 is: triptych • \TRIP-tik\ • noun 1 : an ancient Roman writing tablet with three waxed leaves hinged together 2 a : a picture (such as an altarpiece) or carving in three panels side by side b : something composed or presented in three parts or sections; especially : trilogy Examples: The panels of the triptych illustrated the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. "'Certain Women,' her latest film and arguably the most precise expression of [Kelly] Reichardt's vision to date, is a triptych based on three short stories by the Montana-raised author Maile Meloy." — Alice Gregory, The New York Times, 16 Oct. 2016 Did you know? A painted or carved triptych typically has three hinged panels, and the two outer panels can be folded in towards the central one. A literary or musical triptych generally consists of three closely related or contrasting themes or parts. Triptych derives from the Greek triptychos ("having three folds"), formed by combining tri- ("three") and ptychē ("fold" or "layer"). Although triptych originally described a specific type of Roman writing tablet that had three hinged sections, it is not surprising that the idea was generalized first to a type of painting, and then to anything composed of three parts. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 8, 2016 is: bully pulpit • \BULL-ee-PULL-pit\ • noun : a prominent public position (as a political office) that provides an opportunity for expounding one's views; also : such an opportunity Examples: "Candidates for governor like to make people think they set the vision. But the governor has a bully pulpit and little else. He or she may be in a position to push or prod or convene a task force or two, but nothing happens if the other players don't agree." — Jay Evensen, The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah), 28 Sept. 2016 "Land use is a local responsibility, and the federal government has limited power to make cities build more housing. Still, the Obama administration is increasingly using the bully pulpit to tell urban progressives that if they care about income inequality, they ought to care about building more housing.'" — Kerry Cavanaugh, The Los Angeles Times, 26 Sept. 2016 Did you know? Bully pulpit comes from the 26th U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt, who observed that the White House was a bully pulpit. For Roosevelt, bully was an adjective meaning "excellent" or "first-rate"—not the noun bully ("a blustering, browbeating person") that's so common today. Roosevelt understood the modern presidency's power of persuasion and recognized that it gave the incumbent the opportunity to exhort, instruct, or inspire. He took full advantage of his bully pulpit, speaking out about the danger of monopolies, the nation's growing role as a world power, and other issues important to him. Since the 1970s, bully pulpit has been used as a term for an office—especially a political office—that provides one with the opportunity to share one's views. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 7, 2016 is: auriferous • \aw-RIF-uh-russ\ • adjective : containing gold Examples: The mining company has discovered many auriferous deposits throughout the region. "Development … on the east flank of the Huachuca Mountains occurred after the 1911 discovery of a gold nugget weighing 22 ounces, probably originating from auriferous quartz veins found in the granite beds upstream." — William Ascarza, The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ), 26 Sept. 2016 Did you know? Students in chemistry class learn that the chemical symbol for gold is Au. That symbol is based on aurum, the Latin word for the element. In the 17th century, English speakers coined auriferous by appending the -ous ending to the Latin adjective aurifer, an offspring of aurum that means "containing gold" or "producing gold." (The -fer is from ferre, a Latin verb meaning "to produce" or "to bear.") Not surprisingly, auriferous is a term that shows up in geological contexts. Some other descendants of aurum include aureate ("of a golden color" or "marked by grandiloquent style"), auric ("of, relating to, or derived from gold"), and the noun or ("the heraldic color gold or yellow"). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 6, 2016 is: mollify • \MAH-luh-fye\ • verb 1 : to soothe in temper or disposition : appease 2 : to reduce the rigidity of : soften 3 : to reduce in intensity : assuage, temper Examples: "To some extent, the delay also was intended to mollify the concerns of county leaders that police and fire service responsibilities were being shoved at them on an abrupt timetable, potentially to the detriment of affected residents." — Lawrence Specker, AL.com, 30 Aug. 2016 "If there were any doubt that Roark, with his 15 wins and top-five ERA, could be a reliable No. 2 starter if Stephen Strasburg cannot pitch in October, he has done all he could to mollify it. He has now thrown 200 innings for the first time. He still leads the league with nine starts of seven or more scoreless innings." — Chelsea Janes, The Washington Post, 21 Sept. 2016 Did you know? Mollify, pacify, appease, and placate all mean "to ease the anger or disturbance of," although each implies a slightly different way of pouring oil on troubled waters. Pacify suggests the restoration of a calm or peaceful state, while appease implies the quieting of insistent demands by making concessions; you can appease appetites and desires as well as persons. Placate is similar to appease, but it often indicates a more complete transformation of bitterness to goodwill. Mollify, with its root in Latin mollis, meaning "soft," implies soothing hurt feelings or anger. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 5, 2016 is: cavalcade • \kav-ul-KAYD\ • noun 1 a : a procession of riders or carriages b : a procession of vehicles or ships 2 : a dramatic sequence or procession : series Examples: "Giant helium balloons, beautifully decorated, horse-drawn carriages and antique cars, along with uniformed cavalcades performing their routines, will thrill parade goers." — San Antonio Magazine, 22 Apr. 2016 "In the first video released by the PAC, a cavalcade of Hollywood's finest appear to underline the importance of voting in November's election. From 'Avengers' alumni Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson … to Julianne Moore, Keegan-Michael Key, … and many more …" — Libby Hill, The Los Angeles Times, 21 Sept. 2016 Did you know? When cavalcade was first used in English, it meant "a horseback ride" or "a march or raid made on horseback." Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, used it this way in his 1647 History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England: "He had with some Troops, made a Cavalcade or two into the West." From there came the "procession of riders" meaning and eventual applications to processions in a broader sense. Cavalcade came to English via French from the Old Italian noun cavalcata, which in turn came from an Old Italian verb, cavalcare, meaning "to go on horseback." Ultimately, these words came from the Latin word caballus, meaning "horse." The combining form –cade also appears in other words describing particular kinds of processions, such as motorcade or the less common aquacade. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 4, 2016 is: dicker • \DIK-er\ • verb : to bargain Examples: "Long before Walt Disney thought to sell toys based on his cartoon characters, [Edgar Rice] Burroughs was dickering with toy manufacturers for Tarzan tie-ins." — Tim Martin, The Telegraph (United Kingdom), 7 July 2016 "As in any divorce, the lawyers will commence dickering, mostly behind closed doors. As in any celeb divorce, the usual unnamed 'sources' will commence leaking like sieves to favored media to benefit one side or the other." — Maria Puente, USA Today, 21 Sept. 2016 Did you know? Etymologists aren't exactly sure of the origins of the verb dicker; however, there is a probability that it arose from the bartering of animal hides on the American frontier. The basis of that theory is founded on the noun dicker, which in English can refer to a quantity of ten hides. That word is derived from decuria, the Latin word for a bundle of ten hides, and ultimately from Latin decem, meaning "ten" (to learn why the month December comes from the Latin word decem, click here). In ancient Rome, a decuria became a unit of bartering. The word entered Middle English as dyker and eventually evolved to dicker. It has been posited that the verb emerged from the bargaining between traders over dickers of hides, but not all etymologists are sold on that idea. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 3, 2016 is: echelon • \ESH-uh-lahn\ • noun 1 : a steplike arrangement (as of troops or airplanes) 2 a : one of a series of levels or grades in an organization or field of activity b : a group of individuals at a particular level or grade in an organization Examples: "And I think that … there are more conservatives in Hollywood than one would think in all echelons, even among the actors." — Jon Voight, speaking on the Fox News Network, 9 Sept. 2016 "There were those in the upper echelons of network news who caught a bit of that altitude sickness and thought it was their job to massage the news on behalf of a greater good only they could see." — Dalton Delan, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 23 Sept. 2016 Did you know? Echelon is a useful word for anyone who is climbing the ladder of success. It traces back to scala, a Late Latin word meaning "ladder" that was the ancestor of the Old French eschelon, meaning "rung of a ladder." Over time, the French word (which is échelon in Modern French) came to mean "step," "grade," or "level." When it was first borrowed into English in the 18th century, echelon referred specifically to a steplike arrangement of troops, but it now usually refers to a level or category within an organization or group of people. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 2, 2016 is: temerarious • \tem-uh-RAIR-ee-us\ • adjective : marked by temerity : rashly or presumptuously daring Examples: "Nissan execs are proud of their new 'flagship crossover,' as they call the 2015 Murano, throwing around further clichés like 'concept car for the street' and talking about how much the interior resembles a 'lounge on wheels.' Which is by an appropriate measure less temerarious than the concept's press release, which proclaimed that designers had drawn inspiration from 'the futuristic allure of hypersonic travel.'" — Jeff Sabatini, CarandDriver.com, December 2014 "More important still—and here he is perceived as either temerarious or feckless—[Pope] Francis has departed radically from his predecessors in that he actively encourages his bishops … to speak boldly when addressing him and in assembly…." — Michael W. Higgins, The Globe and Mail, 13 Mar. 2015 Did you know? If you have guessed that temerarious may be related to the somewhat more common word temerity, you are correct. Temerarious was borrowed into English in the early 16th century from Latin temerarius, which in turn derives from Latin temere, meaning "blindly" or "recklessly." Temerity, which arrived in English over a century earlier, also derives from temere; another descendant is the rare word intemerate,meaning "pure" or "undefiled." Temere itself is akin to Old High German demar, Latin tenebrae, and Sanskrit tamas, all of which have associations with darkness. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 1, 2016 is: gravid • \GRAV-id\ • adjective 1 : pregnant 2 : distended with or full of eggs Examples: "We know by intuition and study that great books approach a condition both above and below human … and our job is to place ourselves somewhere on the continuum between those shifting poles, to welcome a gravid agitation …; to have our personhood both threatened and amplified." — William Giraldi, The New York Times, 26 Jan. 2014 "Her laugh overtakes her.… It's restorative; it brings light into her eyes and her high, round cheekbones into sharp relief. She has a radiance sometimes, almost gravid, and it's usually when she's been laughing." — Tom Junod, Esquire, 1 Feb. 2016 Did you know? Gravid comes from Latin gravis, meaning "heavy." It can refer to a female who is literally pregnant, and it also has the figurative meanings of pregnant: "full or teeming" and "meaningful." Thus, a writer may be gravid with ideas as she sits down to write; a cloud may be gravid with rain; or a speaker may make a gravid pause before announcing his remarkable findings. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 31, 2016 is: sepulchre • \SEP-ul-ker\ • noun 1 : a place of burial : tomb 2 : a receptacle for religious relics especially in an altar Examples: "The secrets of business—complicated and often dismal mysteries—were buried in his breast, and never came out of their sepulchre save now…." — Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, 1849 "He had begun making plans for his sepulchre soon after his election to the papacy in 1503, ultimately conceiving of a memorial that was to be the largest since the mausoleums built for Roman emperors such as Hadrian and Augustus." — Ross King, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, 2002 Did you know? Sepulchre (also spelled sepulcher) first appeared in Middle English around the beginning of the 13th century. It was originally spelled sepulcre, a spelling taken from Anglo-French. Like many words borrowed into English from French, sepulchre has roots buried in Latin. The word arose from Latin sepulcrum, a noun derived from the verb sepelire, meaning "to bury." Sepultus, the past participle of sepelire, gave us—also by way of Anglo-French—the related noun sepulture, which is a synonym of burial and sepulchre. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 30, 2016 is: titivate • \TIH-tuh-vayt\ • verb : to make or become smart or spruce Examples: "It was instantly clear, however, that she had not been idle, but busy titivating: painting her nails, washing her hair, doing her face…." — Rosamunde Pilcher, September, 1990 "I came here as a student …, but I spent more time in Cannon Hill Park two miles from the city centre. I clearly remember watching the gardeners titivate the flower beds and strolling past the lake through the many choice trees." — Val Bourne, The Daily Telegraph (London), 21 May 2016 Did you know? Titivate, spruce, smarten, and spiff all mean "to make a person or thing neater or more attractive." Titivate often refers to making small additions or alterations in attire ("titivate the costume with sequins and other accessories"), but it can also be used figuratively (as in "titivating the script for Broadway"). Spruce up is sometimes used for cosmetic changes or renovations that give the appearance of newness ("spruce up the house with new shutters and fresh paint before trying to sell it"). Smarten up and spiff up both mean to improve in appearance often by making more neat or stylish ("the tailor smartened up the suit with minor alterations"; "he needed some time to spiff himself up for the party"). The origins of titivate are uncertain, but it may have been formed from the English words tidy and renovate. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 29, 2016 is: osculate • \AHSS-kyuh-layt\ • verb : kiss Examples: "One thing I forgot to ask the guy in the bar: When his significant other ended their relationship, did she at least osculate him goodbye?" — Mike Royko, "Love Lost in Lingo," 3 June 1981 "Attorney Dan Bailey was the officiant-with-a-sense-of-humor, advising the groom, 'You may now osculate your bride.'" — Business Observer (Sarasota, Florida), 24 May 2012 Did you know? Osculate comes from the Latin noun osculum, meaning "kiss" or "little mouth." It was included in a dictionary of "hard" words in 1656, but we have no evidence that anyone actually used it until the 19th century—except for scientists who used it differently to mean "to have contact with." Today, osculate is used in geometry for the action of a pair of curves or surfaces that touch so that they have a common tangent at the point of contact. When osculate is used to mean "kiss," the context is typically humorous. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 28, 2016 is: variegated • \VAIR-ee-uh-gay-tud\ • adjective 1 : having discrete markings of different colors 2 : various, diverse, varied Examples: The flower has bright variegated petals. "Everyone of significance in the region has multiple agendas and variegated geopolitical interests." — Robert Robb, The Arizona Republic, 21 Aug. 2016 Did you know? Variegated has been adding color to our language since the 17th century. It is used in botany to describe the presence of two or more colors in the leaves, petals, or other parts of plants, and it also appears in the names of some animals (such as the variegated cutworm). It can be used by the general speaker to refer to anything marked with different colors ("a variegated silk robe," for instance) or to things that are simply various and diverse ("a variegated collection"). Variegated has a variety of relatives in English—it is ultimately derived from the Latin root varius, meaning "varied," which also gave us vary, various, and variety. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 27, 2016 is: myriad • \MEER-ee-ud\ • noun 1 : ten thousand 2 : a great number Examples: "After sold-out shows in New York and Los Angeles, Rise will make its debut in Boston with a myriad of hand-carved jack o' lanterns that will light up a trail that people can walk on as music plays in the background." — Matt Juul, Boston Magazine, 21 Sept. 2016 "The robust and metallic nest-like venue, which is the first ever arena to be run entirely on solar power, features additional popular local restaurants, grab-and-go fresh fruits and vegetables, a touch of Sacramento history with their refurbished neon signs, and a myriad of local microbreweries." — Michael Morris, The Vallejo (California) Times-Herald, 28 Sept. 2016 Did you know? In English, the "ten thousand" sense of myriad mostly appears in references to Ancient Greece, such as the following from English historian Connop Thirwall's History of Greece: "4000 men from Peloponnesus had fought at Thermopylae with 300 myriads." More often, English speakers use myriad in the broad sense—both as a singular noun ("a myriad of tiny particles") and a plural noun ("myriads of tiny particles"). Myriad can also serve as an adjective meaning "innumerable" ("myriad particles"). While some usage commentators criticize the noun use, it's been firmly established in English since the 16th century, and in fact is about 200 years older than the adjective. Myriad comes from Greek myrias, which in turn comes from myrioi, meaning "countless" or "ten thousand." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 26, 2016 is: beatific • \bee-uh-TIFF-ik\ • adjective 1 : of, possessing, or imparting a state of utmost bliss 2 : having a blissful appearance Examples: "She was Italian, funny, a beatific tomboy, with just the hint of a lazy eye, and wore a pair of glasses that made me think of the wonders of the library." — Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run, 2016 "Maybe it was the unexpected warmth of the gesture…. Maybe it was his response, the beatific expression on his face, eyes almost closed, head tilted toward her shoulder.… But when Michelle Obama hugged former President George W. Bush … at a ceremony to open the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the image quickly took flight online." — Mark Landler, The New York Times, 26 Sept. 2016 Did you know? Beatific—which derives from Latin beatificus, meaning "making happy"—has graced the English language as a word describing things that impart consummate bliss since the 17th century. In theology, the phrase "beatific vision" gained meaning as an allusion to the direct sight of God enjoyed by the blessed in heaven. Today, the word more frequently describes a blissful look or appearance. A closely related word is beatitude, which can refer to a state of utmost bliss or to any of the declarations made by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.